An amateur journey of digital recording
Videos
Lighting, Lighting, Lighting – Shooting in 720p versus 1080p
Sep 2nd
I recently attended the Cincinnati JACL Potluck. Great food and company and Taiko Drummers. The room was relatively small. To shoot the video, I used the Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 VC lens my Canon 7D with my zoom H4n for audio. Finally, I matched up the audio and video using Final Cut Express. (Can’t wait to get FCP)
First, it was a very good thing i decided to use the Zoom H4n for audio. When I got home, the audio off the Canon was severely clipped and sounded like, well… you know what it sounded like. In order to get the transients corrrect on the H4n, I had to manually reduce the recording level to 20 (Which is real low). The results speak for themselves. The audio really does capture the dynamics that we experienced live.
For the first video, I thought I would try to record in 720p 60fps. My thought process was that the high speed of the drummers would be better captured at the higher frame rate. When I looked at the full res version of the video I was, not impressed. Here is the video below.
720p 60fps + Low Light = Digital Noise!
I was really surprised to see all the digital noise on the drum casing. At first, I thought is was an issue with the lens. Luckily, I recorded one of their later songs (performance?) in 1080p 24fps. There is a significant difference. See the video below.
1080p 24fps + Low Light = Less Digital Noise
Even in the compressed youtube version, you can still see a significant improvement in the digital noise. What gives. So I looked at my settings for my Canon 7D. In the 720p mode, I have the shutter speed set to 125 or roughly double what the fps (frames per second) spec of this recording mode. In the 1080p mode, I have the shutter speed set to a lower 50 speed. From these settings I can assume that more light will get let in at the lower setting. This makes sense.
Conclusion
I guess I learned the hard way that if you shoot at higher frame rates, you need more light. Duh. The ambient light was not enough to prevent the digital noise captured in the 720p mode. Good lesson. Let me know what you think.
Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 VC Lens Review
Aug 18th
I already bought the best bang for the buck Canon 50mm f1.8 prime lens and had the Canon 28-135mm f3.5-5.6 and a Sigma 70-300mm f4-5.6 macro lens taken from my previous DSLR. After using the Canon 50mm, it was obvious to me that I needed a lens that could shoot wider, and also has a similar f-stop for shooting pictures and video in lower light. After careful consideration, I decided that my next lens purchase would be a 17-50 lens.
There were several choices from the major lens makers. All the ones I considered had constant f-stop of 2.8 and all where relatively similar in range. I narrowed it down to the Canon EF-S 17-55 and the Tamron 17-50. Both had nearly identical features. In the end, the price advantage ($1060 versus $649 minus the $70 mail in rebate) of the Tamron, won me over.
It is very important to note that you only get the rebate (and the fantastic 6 year warranty) when you purchase the Tamron from an authorized dealer. Luckily, I was able to find a somewhat local dealer Click Camera and they match B & H photos online price.
Looking at the lens
The Tamron lens is a 17-50mm lens that has a constant f-stop of 2.8. There are two advantages to this constant f-stop lens. The most obvious is the ability to work well in lower light. This is true for both photos and in video mode. In low-light situations, the constant f-stop prevents having to change the settings on the camera or having the images and video get darker as I zoom in. This may not seem real important now, but just wait until you are shooting indoors and find yourself having to constantly change your settings based on your zoom level. With the Tamron lens, you can just set it and shoot.
The build quality is very nice. The only issue I had was that it made a noise when it adjusted the zoom. The camera guy said this would go away over time and it is already not a loud as when I first tried the lens. It has not gone completely away yet. The controls make sense although the focus ring goes the opposite direction. This is not a problem when using the auto focus mode, but can create issues when you are manually adjusting the focus in video mode on the Canon 7D. The lens comes with a hood which is nice because Canon lenses don’t seem to. The lens is not too heavy and feels great mounted to the Canon 7D.
Using the lens
The Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 VC lens feels great on my Canon 7D. The connection is solid and the focus ring moves smoothly. As noted before the zoom ring is still a little stiff but is starting to feel better.
My first test using the lens was in my bedroom in the morning. Our curious cat Shadow (gray cat) was my first subject. The first thing I noticed is that the auto focus was noisier than my Canon lenses. Actually, it was on par with my Sigma lens. Auto focus works quite well and is relatively quick. I was able to get a great picture of my “moving” subject. When comparing this lens to the others, I notice that the minimum focal length is really close. Specs reported 11.4″ but it seamed closer. This allowed me to get really close to my subject and product a nice DOF.
Later, I compared taking pictures with my Canon 50mm f1.8 lens. To be fair, I set the Tamron to a 50mm zoom setting. I found the autofocus in the Tamron to be slightly more accurate but the Canon lens was much faster. I noticed that I could get significantly closer to the subject with the Tamron 17-50 versus the Canon 50mm f1.8. (black and white cat) Outside, I took some pictures of my deck railing. I was able to easily control the depth of field getting a really nice blokeh.
Finally, I decided to shoot some video. My daughters friend was performing down at the local Applebee’s. I used my Zoom H4n for the audio and did a quick edit in Final Cut Express. (I can’t wait to get Final Cut Pro) I was a little off in the focus (I need a better way to focus) but the color looks just like it did at the event.
Conclusion
The Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 VC lens is a great addition to my collection. For the moment, this lens has displaced my Canon 50mm f1.8 and the default lens mounted on my Canon 7D. What the Tamron gives up in speed, it makes up and more in the ability to get closer to a subject and zoom out to a wide 17mm range. This lens is a great fit for someone looking to add a multipurpose lens for video and picture for your Canon 7D (or T2i/550D).
First Look – Zoom H4n
Apr 21st
If you are like me, you realize that the video quality of the Canon 7D is amazing. Not so amazing is the sound. The Canon 7D has an integrated mono microphone. It also has a mini-jack stereo input. However, both are controlled by an auto gain feature that is not user adjustable. The internal microphone works OK, but is that good enough to match the video quality? Fortunately, there are solutions.
For the Canon 7D you have two basic choices. You can add an external microphone designed to plug in to the 7D, or you can go with an external audio recorder. I decided to go the external recorder solution and chose the Zoom H4n.
The Zoom H4n is a 4-track external audio recording device. It records on to SD cards with super high-end audio. It has two on-board microphones that can be user adjusted 90˚ or 120˚. It also has two phantom powered microphone inputs for 4-channel audio recording. You can pick up a Zoom H4n for about $300.
I have been playing with the H4n for a couple of weeks now and I must say that it is relatively easy to use. However, the hard part is syncing the audio back to the video in post production. I was able to do this in iMovie with great difficulty. (Maybe i missed the easy way to do this. ) I found it much easier to use Final Cut Express to sync the audio.
Last weekend, I recorded my daughters show choir group performing the National Anthem at a local baseball park. I created three videos with different levels of sound. The first video is using the internal microphone of the Canon 7D. The second is using the audio from the Zoom H4n. Both audio tracks were normalized before uploaded to YouTube.
In the final video, I played around with noise reduction using Audacity. Check out the videos.
Using the internal Canon 7D Microphone Audio Normalized
Using H4n Audio Normalized
There is a notable sound quality improvement using the Zoom H4n. I used the included foam cover to help reduce wind noise. I am sure that I could get better results with one of those furry sock things.
Using the H4n Audio with Noise reduction
I think I went too far with the noise reduction. I added about 10dB or noise reduction. I think if I play with the settings, I can get better results. There is always next time.
Conclusion
If you want your audio to match your video, the Zoom H4n is an excellent solution. It is a more expensive solution then an external microphone, but you have so much more control and ability to place the audio recording separate from the video recording on the Canon 7D.
